Combining sequential test cases into an equivalent set of adaptive test cases
When testing a state-based system one might use a set of (negative) test cases in which each test case is a sequence of events that should not occur. Testing then involves executing the system under test (SUT) in order to check whether any of these disallowed sequences can occur. While testing using...
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| Veröffentlicht in: | Journal of logical and algebraic methods in programming Jg. 148; S. 101092 |
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| Abstract | When testing a state-based system one might use a set of (negative) test cases in which each test case is a sequence of events that should not occur. Testing then involves executing the system under test (SUT) in order to check whether any of these disallowed sequences can occur. While testing using such sequences can be effective, they introduce a source of inefficiency: if a test case expects the SUT to produce output a after observing a sequence σ and the SUT instead produces a different output a′ after σ then testing with that test case did not show an error, because the SUT can autonomously produce outputs, and terminates because the test case only makes sense if the exact sequence is observed. This is a source of inefficiency if there is another test case that starts with σ followed by a′: we could have continued evaluating whether the application of this second test case leads to an error. This paper considers scenarios in which events represent inputs, outputs, or the passing of discrete time. We show how a set of sequential test cases can be converted into an equivalent set of adaptive test cases, with adaptivity addressing the above source of inefficiency. The proposed approach has the potential to improve efficiency when using any test generation technique that returns negative sequential test cases. |
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| AbstractList | When testing a state-based system one might use a set of (negative) test cases in which each test case is a sequence of events that should not occur. Testing then involves executing the system under test (SUT) in order to check whether any of these disallowed sequences can occur. While testing using such sequences can be effective, they introduce a source of inefficiency: if a test case expects the SUT to produce output a after observing a sequence σ and the SUT instead produces a different output a′ after σ then testing with that test case did not show an error, because the SUT can autonomously produce outputs, and terminates because the test case only makes sense if the exact sequence is observed. This is a source of inefficiency if there is another test case that starts with σ followed by a′: we could have continued evaluating whether the application of this second test case leads to an error. This paper considers scenarios in which events represent inputs, outputs, or the passing of discrete time. We show how a set of sequential test cases can be converted into an equivalent set of adaptive test cases, with adaptivity addressing the above source of inefficiency. The proposed approach has the potential to improve efficiency when using any test generation technique that returns negative sequential test cases. |
| ArticleNumber | 101092 |
| Author | Merayo, Mercedes G. Núñez, Manuel Hierons, Robert M. |
| Author_xml | – sequence: 1 givenname: Robert M. surname: Hierons fullname: Hierons, Robert M. email: R.Hierons@sheffield.ac.uk organization: School of Computer Science, University of Sheffield, S1 4DP, Sheffield, United Kingdom – sequence: 2 givenname: Mercedes G. surname: Merayo fullname: Merayo, Mercedes G. email: mgmerayo@fdi.ucm.es organization: Design and Testing of Reliable Systems, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain – sequence: 3 givenname: Manuel orcidid: 0000-0001-9808-6401 surname: Núñez fullname: Núñez, Manuel email: mn@sip.ucm.es organization: Design and Testing of Reliable Systems, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 28040, Madrid, Spain |
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| Cites_doi | 10.1007/s10664-022-10149-y 10.1007/s10270-020-00850-1 10.1145/1459352.1459354 10.1109/TSE.2023.3291137 10.1145/3572837 10.1007/s10270-018-00710-z 10.1145/3379508 10.1109/5.533956 10.1007/s12243-015-0457-8 10.1016/j.robot.2023.104426 10.1145/3624742 10.1016/j.infsof.2022.107145 |
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